The book sets out why the "business as usual economy" is incompatible with the current environmental challenges we face. Schor points out that the blinkered pursuit of economic growth is contributing to excess consumption, waste, intense resource use and long working hours. She puts forward a new way - the Plenitude model - which is based on four principles:
- reduced hours of market work
- high productivity self provisioning
- "true materialism" - an environmentally aware approach to consumption
- revitalisation of community and social connection
All sounds lovely doesn't it? Initially I felt a little cynical about these ideas and thought they were only really the choices that people can make when they are wealthy enough to have that luxury. But Schor hasn't written this book to convince the rich to change their ways, she has ideas for everyone.
The appeal of fewer hours of market work is obvious, but the downside is having less money. The book covers both of these dynamics, and I really liked this quote:
"...income is positional but leisure time is not. The benefits of more vacation days or shorter hours are durable, remaining even when others gain free time."In other words if you had a 5% pay rise but everyone else got 10%, you'd probably feel hard done by even though you have extra money. But if you have more leisure time you'll enjoy what you have even if others have even more.
On the productivity point, I wondered how we are meant to achieve this if we are doing everything ourselves? Homeward Bound talks about the downside of spending all your time in the garden or in the kitchen...Schor instead focuses on innovations to maximise output so time is freed up for other things. One such innovation that she talks about is the vertical garden. Highly productive, they have been used on tower blocks, they can reduce energy consumption by insulating a building to keep it cool in summer and warm in winter, purify the air and look beautiful...wow. I looked up the French landscaper Patrick Blanc, who invented the Vertical Garden and the results are amazing...as you can see here.
The concept of "true materialism" is about caring about the things we have and what we buy, not over buying and throwing away. There is a great section in the book on fast fashion, i.e. buying cheap, low quality stuff and throwing it away as soon as fashion changes (or it falls apart). Schor doesn't think we should be living in homemade hessian sacks, she'd rather we buy special things we'll love and keep for as long as possible. I have to say...this did put me off shopping in the January sales (well, not completely).
The last principle is about community and social connections. If you're spending less time at work then of course you will have more time to spend with other people. One of the other things Schor talks about is how self provisioning can bring you closer to your neighbours, and I know this to be true based on our own early endeavours in back yard growing. After a glut of green beans we ended up distributing them to the neighbours and it was always a nice excuse for a chat.
All in all a powerful book that made me think about what we spend our money on, whether we really need that stuff, and what we throw away.
